1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microfluidic system with an interrogation apparatus which detects and interrogates objects in a sample fluid mixture of a microfluidic chip, and a focused energy apparatus which performs an action which affects the objects. In one embodiment, the interrogation apparatus interrogates the objects to determine their identity, and the focused energy apparatus is an apparatus acts on target objects. In one embodiment, the focused energy apparatus is used to damage, kill, alter, disable, or destroy the targeted objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the separation of various particles or cellular materials—for example, the separation of sperm into viable and motile sperm from non-viable or non-motile sperm, or separation by gender—the process is often a time-consuming task, with severe volume restrictions. Thus, current separation techniques cannot, for example, produce the desired yield, or process volumes of cellular materials in a timely fashion.
Photo-damaging laser systems have utilized lasers to photodamage or kill undesired cellular objects. However, the prior art has required flow cytometers using nozzles, to interrogate and arrange the individual objects in droplet flow, and to attempt to separate and photodamage the objects as they fall into various containers—which has been difficult to achieve.
Thus, there is needed, a method and apparatus which identifies and discriminates between target objects, is continuous, has high throughput, is time and cost effective, and which causes negligible or minimal damage to the various target objects. In addition, such an apparatus and method should have further applicability to other biological and medical areas, not just in sperm discrimination, but in the discrimination of blood and other cellular materials, including viral, cell organelle, globular structures, colloidal suspensions, and other biological materials.